Pumpkin Fest 2014: I’d heard there were police with riot gear breaking up a party so I headed down to the college neighborhood yesterday around 6pm after a successful afternoon of handing out Foundation for NH Independence fliers and Bitcoin fliers. Blake Street was packed with people when I arrived, but police were at about a block away in each direction. I asked one house if I could get up on their porch to get a better shot of the crowd and he was gracious enough to invite me up into his room to get a shot from the second story. In the few moments it took to get up there, the large crowd had split and bottles were being thrown. While I don’t think the police should be arresting people for victimless crimes, this was actual criminality. People were getting hurt, property was destroyed and littered upon. Of course, because they have no obligation to protect you, Keene Police decided to stay safely down the street. Here’s video from the middle of the bottle war:
More Pumpkinfest Riot coverage to come here at Free Keene.
I like this creative way of the government of protecting the people by standing aside and letting crime happen.
where was the free market solution to this that i keep hearing about?
So instead of complaining about the police not doing anything, why didn’t you step in and make an effort?
Then you want free keene to get the millions of tax payer dollars? i think that’s a great idea.
So you agree someone should have stepped in to stop property damage and the violence that was associated with these riots but at the same time bash the institution that provides this security for you, calling them self serving. Maybe I’m not anarchist, but I consider myself pretty strongly libertarian and I support essential government services–like the police–and I just find it funny when people will point fingers and Monday morning quarterback but refuse to do anything about the situations themselves. If you don’t support the police, call yourselves what you are, ‘anarchists’, but stop harassing police officers for doing… Read more »
If anyone tried to “do something” about the situation, they would have been called “vigilantes” and attacked by the cops. If the cops are forcibly preventing competition, then it’s ridiculous to condemn others for not competing.
where was the free market solution to the police? i keep hearing about one and this would have been the perfect time to show up.
What? What a fucking moron.
If any liberty-loving individual showed his face in the crowd in any way, the statists would have claimed they caused the disturbance. Frankly, I took an interest in this just to see if that had, in fact, happened yet.
Competition with the police is technically illegal. I’m sure if a militia had stormed in to protect property the police would have attacked the militia. I do see this as a failed opportunity of FK, FSP, and CB to organize a citizen group to combat against property damage from drunken students or to attempt to identify for arrest later.
I would have loved to have seen the FK douche squad try to move in and restore order … and get the collective crap kicked out of them in the process. That would have been just plain delightful to watch.
Well then maybe you should support letting people compete with the state on services like policing.
What the hell did you expect them to do? Had they gone in with the numbers they had versus the number of rioters they would have to be pretty heavy handed and you would be whining about that. I saw no-one get hurt in your video, and anyone who felt in danger could just walk away. I think this site has some egg on its face at this point because after all the BS you spread about the KPD and other LE agencies now your on here crying they didn’t do enough to protect you. Frankly the attitude you and… Read more »
“you want a world with no responsibility.” Well, that’s the world we live in when it comes to government: “no resposibility” is the government’s tagline. While I totally understand from the point of view of the actual police officers that they always put their safety first, the problem is that doesn’t fit their fairy tale about what they do and how they do it. “Law enforcement” likes to present themselfs as altruistic and heroic magical beings, that have only one thing in mind: keeping you safe from crime. We’ll that’s not true at all. They are just ordinary human beings… Read more »
I think this argument is kind of tired. Do I know cops who think they are above the law, yes I do. However in my 20 years of emergency service I have known probably hundreds of cops, and 90% of them were good people and good cops. I do believe people in this line of work are more altruistic than the general public, you would have to be to do some of what is asked of you. People have no issue throwing love at us firefighter/EMTs but yet they will bash the police. Our job makes us more likely to… Read more »
Put bluntly, you’re full of shit. Obviously, no one in the liberty movement was involved, or it would have been published prominently, far and wide. You’re obviously a statist thug pretending to be libertarian, because you’re clearly sucking up to mommy state.
And you are clearly an under-educated loser who sits in his parents basement all day acting like a big-and-bad keyboard warrior. Go fuck yourself.
You obviously have shit-for-brains, and thus, wouldn’t know. It is you who get the honor of self-fornication, since it ain’t your blog.
I don’t think it is so clear that no one from the “liberty movement” was involved, actually since all these videos are here, I would say that alone disproves your statement. I am not blaming FK or the FSM or CopBlock for the instigation of the riots, that appears to be the work of a for profit social media site with no actual connection to Keene or even NH. My statement is more toward the anti-authority attitude they have created, even when the authority is in the right. I am a true libertarian, who believes in a small federal government… Read more »
Obviously, it disproves nothing because taking video is not involvement, and there are plenty who would be certain to make harsh allegations if they could.
The “anti-authority” attitude was not “created” by them. It is right, and it is just, and it is ancient. Obviously, given the paradox of your statements, you’re not libertarian. You’re a mini-statist, from what I can tell.
Your guess is wrong. I’m not aware of when I called you trendy names, but I’ll bet you deserved it. If it was statist thug to which you were referring, I stand by it, given your posts.
I gave you the chance to engage in a discussion and you went back to name calling. Your writing style still causes me to place you in the more school than real life category. But we can go rounds all day on that, and since I doubt either of us in interested in gathering for coffee, we will never really settle that. I stand by my arguments, and nothing I have seen on this site yet sways me. I think Keene’s youth have gone to far, and may have pushed the locals to far now. You may find the community… Read more »
Could you be more pompous, condescending and disingenuous?
To be clear, they’re not my antics. They’re the antics of those individuals, and no one ever said they agreed with everything all the time. I know what sitting back does, and it involves abuses by the monopoly on power. In ever tiny state there’s a monster you seem to love.
I’ll pass on discourse with you. You can have whatever delusions you want. I’m pretty sure you’re free to leave this site if you don’t like it.
If that passes for a “true Libertarian” then why call yourself anything more than “authoritarian”?
You are no different than Republicans or democrats. You want a violent coercive state to force others to live and behave as you wish.
One can not believe in the principal of self ownership and be an authoritarian.
I am dumb proud to no be a “true libertarian”.
And don’t forget about sex with children – they think that should be allowed as well.
After all the safety of the police is the primary concern. Forget that they claim to protect the people.
I saw the news this morning and was appalled by the violence but relieved to see that nothing/no one FSP or FreeKeene was said to have been involved in any way.
This, of course, demonstrates the absurdity of the paranoia and hatred statists often show for those in the peace-loving, liberty-loving movement. It’s rather fitting, and at the same time, unfortunate, to see unprincipled children of the state to create violent incidents such as this.
I don’t think FK is off the hook quite yet. A freedom group from Keene extended a message outside of the area inviting people to riot.
What exactly are you talking about?
The truth – that’s what he posted about, loser.
There wasn’t any “truth” there, asshole. Just an vague claim. That’s why I asked what she’s talking about, dumbfuck!
So I am FSP member, I was there with my kids. Drunken thuggery! The crowd I drove through could have easily overwhelmed KPD and all the others called in. I thought given the circumstances, the LEO handled it quite well. Better to have the mob let off a little pressure on their own, and keep it loosly contained. I am putting blame on the knuckleheads at Keene State and their out of town buddies from Mass and CT. What a disgrace.
I think this has allot to do with public education and the fact that people are taught to to think and act as children. Also thanks to weed prohibition alcohol is the preferred drug.
People are born thinking and acting like children. Unfortunately, they’re never taught how to be adults. Everyone expects their children to just “grow up” naturally. It doesn’t work that way.
weed isn’t prohibited where i live but i still prefer beer. so this is just false,
Well in Keene NH it is illegal. So the state is saying drink up and not smoke up.
the state isn’t forcing you to do either, please have some intelligence.
Well the state is at least promoting one over the other. I will agree with you Chad that the state is not cramming it down my throat either way. There is not you must drink check point lol okay are you happy now.
it is a personal choice and thats all i wanted to point out. both are a personal choice.
It is prohibited there. In most states its prohibited still. Also toss on about forty years of hard marijuana prohibition and you might end up with alcohol being the preferred drug of choice. I also think public education teaches people to be idiots and that violence is always the solution. I think not owning and living off loans for 4-6 years teaches people to do this to. I agree chad this behavior is not caused by one thing you got me.
to clarify, the 4-6 years is college and you think that it is an influence to not doing booze or weed?
“I think this has allot to do with public education…”
Love it. This moron likes to disparage public education, and yet he cannot even construct a simple sentence correctly. Good job.
How dare anyone call into question the lunacy that is Godvernment indoctrination posing as education.
I think that has a lot more to do with my auto-correct and a lack of checking on my part. But hey way to doge the issues and focus on something arbitrary.
Man thank god we have weed illegal instead of alcohol…imaging what would have happened if all those people had joints instead of booze. I really think we dodged a bullet her folks.
HUH? Just dumb is all I can say!
What a waste of beer… :'(
I suspect Free Keene had some involvement in all of this
I suspect you, Elbas, have masterminded all of this.
I can’t believe this actually happened. Politics aside and given the size of the crowd, it looks like the police did the right thing and waited until the idiots finished their little boring game of throwing bottles at each other. Now every one of these kids is on video committing various crimes. Smart, guys. Really smart. How did common drunken foolishness become political? Lord help us.
No pumpkin….No peace
teespring.com/pumpkinriot2014
I thought the police did this correctly … let the little punk fuckers throw bottles and other crap at each other until they get bored and move on. Who gives a shit if anyone gets hurt in this case? I know I don’t. Later, the police can move in and mop up the extreme retards who just don’t know enough to go home, which is exactly what they did.